My final book review post of the year! And as seems to be tradition, my December list is way longer than (I think) any other month's list. It's also dominated by Christmas-themed books, but I doubt that'll come as a surprise!
In case you're curious, here are my posts from the rest of the year:
January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June,
July,
August,
September,
October,
November
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson (2022)
Last month, I read
Everyone on This Train is a Suspect, not realizing it was a sequel. It was a fun read, and I liked the narrator, so I was curious to go back to the first book. And I
loved it. I completely fell in love with this book! The narrator is Ernest Cunningham, who makes a living self-publishing books about how to write crime fiction (with an emphasis on the Golden Age). Ern’s family is having a reunion in a mountain resort (for reasons that will become clear), and he is reluctantly attending. Pretty early on, a body is discovered on the mountain, and Ern suspects that it has something to do with his family. Because, as we know from the title, everyone in his family has killed someone. The book is written in a knowing, genre-savvy, metafictional style. Ern narrates his narration, even going so far as to tell us early on where we’ll find a death and breaking off at times to list the clues that we might want to consider. However, the characters are well-drawn, and there’s some genuinely harrowing backstory given that had me completely hooked. I really like Ernest as a narrator – he’s much more complex than the gimmick of his storytelling style. But the thing that I loved most was that, for all his explanations, narration and commentary, there’s one secret that Ernest resolutely keeps, a secret that no true Golden Age fan would
ever reveal, and that made me very happy.
The Anti-Social Season by Adele Buck (2024)
Since we were away for our annual festive getaway, my thoughts turned to Christmas fiction. I don’t read a lot of romance, but it’s one of the genres that kinda dominates the festive season (along with murder mysteries), so I thought I’d dip my toe in the water.
The Anti-Social Season is the story of Thea – a firefighter who’s dealing with burnout and wanting to leave her job – and Simon – a librarian. Thea is offered the job of running the fire department’s social media, and Simon (who runs the social media for the library) is tasked with mentoring her. It turns out, the two went to the same high school, and Simon had a huge crush on Thea when they were young. This is a charming enough story, with plenty of flirting and quite a bit of sex. The problem for me was that there isn’t really any reason for the two characters not to just get together from the start. Simon doesn’t really hold any ill feelings towards Thea for not noticing his crush, and there are no external factors keeping them apart. So, they do go on a date and end up in bed together pretty swiftly, and then they’re pretty much a couple for the rest of the book. I liked the characters, and the chemistry was good, but I think I need a little more suspense in a romance, or a little more build-up to the happy ending. Overall, it was a light-hearted, fun read though.
Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor (2022)
The next book I read was a library book that I checked out in October. And it’s the second book this month that I completely fell in love with! This is a YA (older end of the age range) fantasy novel, so not the sort of thing I’ve been reading much lately. The eponymous hotel is a place of magic and decadence that manifests in different locations each day, promising guests a stay filled with wonder and enchantment. When the hotel comes to the town where she lives for the first time in a decade, Jani decides to orchestrate it so she and her sister (Zosa) can get jobs there. Of course, as soon as they’re inside the hotel (or maybe even before that), the cracks in the wonderous façade start to appear. Is being part of the Hotel Magnifique really such a good idea? I loved the descriptions of the hotel, and the growing air of menace. But most of all, I loved the character of Bel, who appears first as a ‘doorman’, ushering Jani and Zosa to their new jobs, but soon revealed as a much more integral part of the hotel. Bel is, by turn, attractive, mischievous, broken, traumatised, menacing and mysterious. Taylor does a really good job of making the reader get to know this character at the same pace as Jani, so our feelings towards him follow those of the heroine. Overall, this is just an incredibly fun read, and I couldn’t put it down!
The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson (2023)
’Tis the season for festive novellas. The next book I read was a quick Christmas-themed mystery. The blurb promised the ‘slickest of twists’, which may have been something over an overstatement, but there was still a nice little switch in the middle (though I’ll confess to having seen it coming). After a prologue set in New York, the story takes us back to England in 1989. An American student named Ashley is invited to spend Christmas with one of her uni friends, Emma Chapman, at a country house named Starvewood Hall. As you can probably imagine, Ashley is entranced by the Englishness of it all, and by the quaint Christmas traditions of the family and the local village. However, there’s something off about it all, and there’s an air of menace (I feel like I might use this phrase a lot in my reviews this month) to proceedings. Firstly, it’s not clear
why Emma has invited Ashley to stay with her family, seeing as the two weren’t particularly close friends in London. And secondly, Ashley develops a pretty heavy crush on Emma’s brother Adam when she meets him. Through Ashley’s eyes, Adam seems like a swoon-worthy young English gent, but it’s quite clear from comments and actions by others that Adam isn’t quite the person she imagines him to be. As I say, it’s not too difficult to work out where things are going, but it’s still a very engaging read. And I did enjoy the darkness of Adam (weirdly).
The Clinic by Cate Quinn (2024)
The next book wasn’t a Christmas book, but I thought it would be nicely atmospheric. And I was right!
The Clinic is a psychological thriller – not to be confused with the other psychological thrillers of the same name – set in a remote and very private rehab clinic. The protagonist is Meg, a dysfunctional woman who works in undercover security at a casino. Meg checks herself after her sister Haley, a famous singer, dies of a self-administered overdose during her stint in rehab at the eponymous clinic. Meg doesn’t believe that Haley’s death was an accident or suicide. However, her stay is only partly an undercover investigation – Meg is also an addict, hooked on alcohol and oxycodone. So, in addition to finding ways to investigate her sister’s death, Meg has to navigate her own detox and withdrawal. She meets a group of celebrities who are going through treatment together, and who knew her sister, and the dynamics between this group form part of both stories (the murder case and the rehab narrative). One of the things I liked was that, though it’s clear that some of the characters had pretty traumatic childhoods, this is presented through the odd comment and implication. The focus is on how the characters are addressing the long-term effects of childhood trauma, rather than explaining in detail how it was caused. The mystery is pretty gripping with some good clues. The solution is a bit mad, but then what else would you expect with such a setting!
The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex (2021)
I bought this book in Mousehole, when we were there to see the Christmas lights. I like to read at least one book set in Cornwall during our annual holiday there, and since we stay very close to a lighthouse, this one seemed like a good fit. Stonex’s novel is about three lighthouse keepers who go missing from their tower at New Year in 1972 (yes – bonus! – this is also sort of a Christmas book). The disappearance in Stonex’s book is fictional, but there are a couple of nods to the real-life Flannan Isles case from 1900. I really enjoyed
The Lamplighters. The narrative moves between 1972, showing scenes from the perspective of each of the keepers in turn, and 1992, when a novelist has decided to write a book about the case and is contacting the three women (two wives and a girlfriend) who were left behind when the men vanished. All six of the main characters are fascinating, for different reasons, and because we see things from their perspectives or in their words, it’s easy to feel very connected to them. Personally, I felt the most sympathy for Vince, the youngest and most junior keeper, whose troubled past has led him to working for Trinity House (the official authority for lighthouses). Although the book is unashamedly inspired by the 1900 case, the 1970s setting is really interesting, as lighthouses were being automated at this time, consigning the role and way of life of the lighthouse keeper to history.
The Mistletoe Mystery by Nita Prose (2024)
Another Christmas novella now… earlier this year, I reviewed
The Maid, the first book in Prose’s Molly the Maid series for my radio show.
The Mistletoe Mystery is a Christmas Special (a bit of a trend this year), so although it’s part of the series, it’s not a whodunnit mystery like the others. It’s basically the story of Molly and her boyfriend Juan Manuel spending Christmas together. But his behaviour is a little odd, leading Molly to believe that there’s a different sort of mystery to be solved. There’s a
lot of Christmas in this book, but I think it’s really one for fans of the series. Well, specifically, fans of the character of Molly. This book is absolutely a Christmas Special, so it wouldn’t make a lot of sense if weren’t already familiar with the series. Unfortunately, I’m not a massive fan of Molly, and this book just highlights her worst traits (she’s self-absorbed and judgemental) without allowing her to show off her better traits (she’s good at solving murders). Mostly, the story revolves around everyone at the Regency Grand Hotel bending over backwards to make sure Molly has the best Christmas ever, while she barely gives anyone else’s enjoyment a thought. I know a lot of people really like the character though, and if you’re invested in her relationship with Juan Manuel then this is a must-read instalment in the series. If, like me, you find Molly a little bit self-involved, then it might be one to skip.
Everyone This Christmas Has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson (2024)
I started off this month by reading
Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone, so it was pretty obvious that I was going to be reading Stevenson’s Christmas book at some point. This isn’t as short as some of the other Christmas Specials I’ve read, and it does work as a story in its own right. I’m not sure this would be the best place to start the series, but, unlike with the last book I read, if this was your first introduction to Stevenson’s Ernest Cunningham series, you wouldn’t be completely lost. In this book, Ern is called by his ex-wife Erin who has been arrested for the murder of her partner. Erin’s partner ran a theatre project to support recovering drug addicts, and he was murdered just before Christmas (and also just before a big magic show at his flagship theatre). Stevenson’s book is as funny and knowing as his previous two, with lots of explanations as to how Golden Age detective fiction works, along with some nice commentary on the ‘rules’ of the Christmas Special that I liked. It’s structured like an advent calendar, with 23 clues in 23 chapters (Door 24 is the big reveal, of course). I’ll confess to/show off about working out a big bit of the mystery, but I was still stumped by some of the other clues – as it should be. Although the Christmas element is the appeal with this one, it’s a decent mystery outside of that. Poor old Ern though.
The Examiner by Janice Hallett (2024)
The last book I read in December was one I’d been looking forward to, but which turned out to be a little bit of a disappointment. I’ve loved all of Janice Hallett’s novels so far (including her Christmas Special, which I read last year).
The Examiner is very much in the mould of her first novel,
The Appeal, which I adore. The reader is presented with a series of documents, with a brief note to say that ‘something’ has happened but no further explanation. In this case, it’s a collection of reports and chat transcripts relating to a group of six art students on an MA course. As with Hallett’s other novels, there’s a lot of comedy, particularly in the chat transcripts, and her ability to let readers get to know characters through limited and non-standard storytelling techniques is, once again, incredible. However, in many ways, this novel treads the same ground as
The Appeal, so it held far fewer surprises than (my favourite so far)
The Twyford Code. I had some issues with the mystery itself as well, but it’s quite difficult to say what I didn’t like without spoiling the book for those who haven’t read it. Suffice to say, I prefer mysteries that look like big, shadowy conspiracies but turn out to be much more domestic in the end, rather than the other way around. I wonder if it’s time to update Ronald Knox’s Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction to include… well… things I won’t spoil here.
